The International break is over as Premier League action returns. The Gunners will try to revenge after the FA Cup elimination as they play Watford at Emirates stadium this Saturday.
PREMIER LEAGUE
April 2, 2016 • 16:00 • Emirates Stadium, London
Referee: Anthony Taylor
Arsenal vs Watford Live Streams
Same routine for Arsene Wenger for some consecutive seasons as his Arsenal after leading the Premier League weeks ago they currently are 11 points away from the leaders, Leicester City and 6 points away from their fierce rivals, Tottenham. The French manager will try the best on the last 8 games left as he does not have the chance to face the two teams that stands higher than them on the table.
Anyway other than looking for the title, the Gunners also must not miss Champions League football since Manchester United and West Ham are only 5 points away.Still Arsenal got luck on their side since 6 of 9 left games they’ll play against teams that stands at the bottom half of the table. Also after being knocked out from Barcelona at Champions League and Watford at FA Cup, Premier League is the only competition that the Gunners are in race.
The current form of Arsenal should concern Arsene Wenger as they’ve won only 2 games in their last 6 games in all competitions and they’ve gone 4 matches without winning at Emirates Stadium – the worst run since November 2002. The Gunners have a better record outside of Emirates Stadium this season as they’ve earned more points and also scored 10 more goals.
Good news for Arsene Wenger as Petr Cech returns to training with the team, but still the veteran goalkeeper isn’t certain if he’s about to start against Watford. “Cech is going back to normal training,” said Wenger. “It’s too early to say if he will be available for the weekend. He might be a bit short to be competitive.
Big returns are also Jack Wilshere and Rosicky as they’ve been long-term absentees. Anyway the infirmary room will not be empty since Ramsey (thigh), Cazorla (Achilles), Flamini (hamstring), Oxlade-Chamberlain (knee) still remains sidelined.
Arsene Wenger, Arsenal manager (asked if his side have to win their eight remaining games if they are to have a chance of winning the title):
“Should we win all the eight games I think we have more than one chance to win the league, but the target is to win the games, of course, and let’s start to be pragmatic and win the next one. That is tomorrow.”
(asked if 79 points – Arsenal’s largest possible total – could be enough to secure the title):
“We are depending on Leicester and…. nobody knows at the moment how they will respond in the last seven games. They have seven games, we have eight. But, what is important is that we play our eight games with complete commitment and passion and see where we finish.
Everybody says Leicester is a team, who has overachieved, but when you see now all the international players, who go play with their national team, were the best players in the national teams. So that shows it’s never coincidence. When a team does well it’s because they have good players.”
“We know now that we can win at this stadium because we did it a few weeks ago, but we should know also that for sure Arsenal will want revenge – they are not happy to have lost a few weeks ago,” said Flores for the press.
(on his own future at Arsenal):
“My individual case is to perform, as I just told you, and to give my best for the team to be successful until the end of the season. That’s what it is about. After that, this club has values and one of the values is that we respect our contract and people that work for the club, respect that contract. So that shouldn’t be a surprise and, I’m here for 19 years and I always did that.”
On the other side Watford will try to repeat the FA Cup game against Arsenal despite they seems to be more concerned about FA Cup than Premier League. Watford manager remains confident to beat Arsenal once again at Emirates Stadium, also breaking the record of 40 points and being close to be the only manager in history to keep Watford at Premier League for more than one season.
As said, Watford main target is FA Cup as they face Crystal Palace on April 24 – one of the teams who’ve been underperforming this season. They’re just 90 minutes away from the FA Cup final, for first time since 1984 [ it would be second final in their entire history].
Flores will have to face Arsenal this weekend without the services of Rene Gilmartin and Tommie Hoban – who remains long time sidelined, also Vehrami and Podl are unavailable as they’ve been suffering a illness.
Possible lineups :
Arsenal : Cech; Bellerin, Gabriel, Koscielny, Monreal; Elneny, Coquelin, Sanchez, Ozil, Welbeck; Giroud
Watford : Gomes; Nyom, Cathcart, Britos, Ake; Jurado, Amrabat, Suarez, Capoue; Deeney, Ighalo